Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me

Tune: Toplady

Peter Pindar Sterns (1931-2016)

This absolute gem comes from the Augsburg - Organ Library - Baptism and Communion and from a composer that I have heard very little of since maybe the 1970's. Could just be me.

The tune is by Thomas Hastings (1784-1872).

Stearns simple treatment of this tune is perfectly suited for the Szczecinek sample-set. The stops are beautifully voiced and all work well with each other.

I just introduced 'expression' to my Hauptwerk console and I was trying out the three shoes (Choir/Positiv, Swell, II-IV-Crescendo). I had to create an unusual setup since I was using the original Haygren Organ shoes which had a mechanical connection (linear) to the potentiometer rotary action. I wanted to reuse as many original parts as possible and succeeded (although not without headaches!)

In addition to his compositions which first saw the light of day in the mid-1950's he taught and graduated from Mannes Music School, he has worked in Hollywood, and as an organbuilder with C.B. Fisk and Robert Nohren.